


When No One Else Was Looking

by the_witch_of_vines



Category: Twisted (TV), just a giant fantasy fairy tale cross over au, like i am sorry this had to be done
Genre: Multi, pray 4 me tbh
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-07-14
Updated: 2013-07-18
Packaged: 2017-12-20 04:49:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,477
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/883132
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_witch_of_vines/pseuds/the_witch_of_vines
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Set in the sunken kingdom of Green Grove, an announcement of a royal wedding is interrupted by the appearance of the nephew of a murdered high priestess.</p><p>"The sounds of a curious and eager crowd gave indication of how close they were to the centre of the main town. Years of training had made Lacey a master in adaptation- those years well rewarded by the response of the towns people as she stepped out of the palanquin. As she made her way to the centre of an elevated, intricately designed wooden platform, she took the opportunity to look at her future subjects- from lords to farmers they were all here"</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A Successful Campaign

**Author's Note:**

> i honestly have no idea what is going on here but i had fun ok forgive me

11 moons before the wedding. For what seemed like a second lifetime for the head and only daughter of the house of Porters, this kingdom who would soon see her as queen, appeared much more prepared for the occasion. Her occasion. 

Lacey, a name she had been given by scribes of the realm during the great wedding campaign, sat by the window to savour the rare sunshine that was afforded to this small kingdom. As large as it was, blessed with the most fertile lands, when a kingdom must be built in a grove in sunken land, it must give something up in trade for such protection. For them it was the sun. She longed for it- the golden tones of her skin just blended in with the bright beams of light, reminding her of where she was meant to be. It took her to rolling fields and the high pitched laughter of children, three children to be exact- one of which was she.  
The knocking on the door pushed these sad summery thoughts away, as she smoothed at the fine lace work of her gown she answered “come in”. Even her voice was now well suited for this performance for royalty. Today was the royal exhibition, and as the winner of the royal campaign and future queen, she would be the one on display to her kingdom.  
And to her future husband, the young King Archibald.

After an intense session of final fittings and nods of approval of royal advisors, Lacey of The Porters, was guided down all the marbled finery of the palace and lead into the palanquin. In there she was greeted by her own two handmaids, both from lands beyond the sunken grove, but neither in houses that had to fight for favours in the realm, unlike hers. Sarita sat as if she were placed by the hands of jewellers, surrounded by silken pillows. Her curls bound in pearls, that matched with the beaded finery of her robes. Beside Sarita sat Lacey’s second handmaiden, Regina, who appeared to have taken advantage of all the decadence this kingdom had to offer as she stretched out in her lace and ribbons, like it was her exhibition. In comparison to the two of them, Lacey appeared to be much more modest in presentation. However, where her gown lacked in plunging necklines traced with rare jewels or the finest of silks, by recommendation of the queen mother of the realm, she was asked to appear to be more at one with the people of this realm in clothing and in manner. If the Porters were to gain any favourable position, they would have to do anything to distance themselves from past scandals, and it appeared that this would lie on the shoulders of Lacey.

The sounds of a curious and eager crowd gave indication of how close they were to the centre of the main town. Years of training had made Lacey a master in adaptation- those years well rewarded by the response of the towns people as she stepped out of the palanquin. As she made her way to the centre of an elevated, intricately designed wooden platform, she took the opportunity to look at her future subjects- from lords to farmers they were all here. Amongst the sea of faces, she saw one she had wished she had forgotten. Of course the head of the Palace Guard would have his family here, and of course his daughter would be in the crowd. The cheering grew louder as the Queen mother stepped out of a second, much larger palanquin. In an elaborate display of affection where she was held close, too close, the queen mother did hiss out her words of warming before placing a sugared kiss upon her cheek. With the words “do not think the success of your campaign erases your house’s betrayal” Lacey nodded and kissed her future mother in law ever so tenderly, like she were placing them upon knives. She had worked hard for this moment and for the moments to come. She had performed a whole new Lacey to this realm, one which promised no associations to child murderers of newly dead wolf kings, one which promised no association to the murder of a much loved high priestess. 

Lacey was born again and brand new, so when the young King Archibald finally stepped upon the platform, she did not hesitate to lure him in with her most sincerest looks of- the kind that was sung about in folk love songs and whispered in bed time stories. Silence swept across the crowd, anticipating the actions of this king. She was sure that he had practiced his lines, like she did. Despite never seeing each other, she was content with his appearance, though she pitied him for what looked like intense deprivation of the sun, the gold in his hair gave her some comfort. She hoped she pleased him enough, the realm was so few of people with dark complexion she wondered if he had ever seen a person like that before. All the young king had to do was embrace his future wife and a declaration of how he had found a bride in the heart of the town. To her surprise he rushed to her with so much eagerness in his stride that he had forgotten to kneel and ask for her hand, instead holding her in his arms. The crowd gasped in shock, as the queen mother hit a new shade of pale. “Are you to be my bride?” he asked, as if he were asking for a prize.  
“Your lines my lord” Lacey whispered through gritted teeth as she maneuvered her way out of his hold. He looked at her in complete shock, only to realise the old custom he had forgotten. He dropped to kneel immediately- and as Lacey extended her hand in acceptance of what was supposed to a kiss of approval, he stood up just as quickly and kissed her mouth- leaving her speechless, a Queen mother near fainting and a crowd shrieking with joy.

After a procession of speeches by all the Queen mother, every other noble person that followed after and a babble of a gushing prince who openly thanked the Gods of the realm for not “cursing him with an ugly wife who’s sins had been washed”, it was finally her turn. HER turn to speak to all of her subjects- she had memorised her speech from the day this royal campaign for a bride was announced. She knew every type of forgiveness she would ask for, her promises to the people and open devotion to her love for the young king and his subjects. This was her moment. Her house’s moment to gain public favour and respect once more. From here on no one would dare to associate the murder of a high priestess to the activities and associations of her childhood. From here on, no one would dare to associate the name of the wolf king’s son Dani-  
The words stopped running through Lacey’s head as a cold silence swept across the crowd. She felt the focus on her shift immediately to the gate of the town. As the gate levered down, three old men in brown robes came through, all three of them surrounding a figure shrouded in black cloth and iron chain. They were interrupted by the head of the Palace Guard, the head of house Masterson. Out of confusion and anger over the situation, the Queen mother took to the center of the platform.  
“What seems to be the matter of chief?” she near shrieked in a strained voice “We have an announcement of a royal wedding and you interrupt this with the presence of a petty criminal?” her voice rang through the town center. With her future husband standing before her, she peeked out behind his broad armoured shoulders, seeing Joanna talking to her father, the chief. Even from a distance, the look of horror on her face was visible, and she ran as fast as she could to the platform. Without thinking, Lacey stepped towards the edge of the platform, crumpling her dress as she kneeled down to listen to her once childhood friend. “He’s here” Joanna said breathlessly. Lacey hoped for the name of another, but an all too memorable face was present in her mind.  
“Who” she said, hoping the Palace Guard’s daughter would say someone else’s name. Before Joanna could answer, one of the royal advisors dragged her back by the arm and walked her to her previous position. For a split second she broke the order she had worked on so hard. Bless the king and his transparency in expression as he uttered “the Wolf King’s bastard”. 

Lacey went cold but before she could answer a fog of deep purple fog swirled trough the town centre to the middle of the platform and from the ground rose a tall thin blond woman shrouded in crimson cloth. The woman turned to the young king and smiled eerily “one cannot be a bastard if his mother was married to the Wolf King.” She then turned to the Queen other, engulfing those around her in the purple smoke “And until you release Daniel Desai, the son of my late husband- I will not be leaving the realm” she leaned over and gave the Queen mother a parting kiss on the lips and a quick glance as Lacey. “After all” she said, “I am a fan of a good wedding” and with that, the Wolf widow Karen disappeared in a plume of smoke.


	2. Wedding Guests

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Daniel Desai, heir to the late Wolf King's throne has found himself at the wrong joint
> 
> "This should have been easy  
> There was a routine in place where he was still being monitored, where he still hadn’t been turned into a pelt covering. Yet he had strayed too far in his usual midnight bound, beyond his mother’s spells and calls for protection by the elements. As he found himself running down hill through the trees, he slowly changed to his human form. His naked, unarmed, human form. Before he could respond, he collapsed- as if bound to the earth. There was only one place that he was familiar with, that could revert his kind of magic or surpass the strength of his mother. The one land that had been waiting for his head for six years. The sunken kingdom of Green Grove."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i am sorry i will never drop this fantasy cross over forgive me for my writing fail i am on a journey i am free

Had he known he made it into sunken territory, he would have never shifted in the first place. Yet when the Summer Coastal Lands released him from his imprisonment upon the pleading of his grieving, newly widowed mother- his shifting was beyond his control. His father had not told him that it would be on the Wolf prince’s eighteenth year that he would master this skill of shape shifting. No, at seventeen, the changes in form were so erratic and beyond measure. His father had not told him many things- how when one wolf passed, the heir would be confined to the body of this creature for six moons.  
The last memory Daniel Desai had of his human form was when he had collapsed into his mother’s arms after being released, only for the world to black out around him. The next thing he knew he was bounding through the desert sand on four legs, tearing anything up in his path. The last time he had this much blood in his mouth was when he was eleven, and it would be his two dear friends who would point this fine detail out through their cries and screams.

Being a wolf, being in grieving had made him forget about the laws of each land he entered, how his form was up for hunting- more so than his human type anyway. To his blessing, he had a mother who was all too familiar with such other worldly happenings. Her own profession was founded in the sacred Craft. Before she had wed his father, she was head witch and consultant to the ruler of her land regarding to magic and witchcraft. So even when Daniel, or Danny as she still called him, was far beyond communicating with humans, Karen could still guarantee him protection through hexes and the occasional call for invisibility. On one too many occasion, when town hunters and local lords got too close to him, it seemed like the ground would sink them in all too conveniently- allowing the young wolf to escape.  
This should have been easy  
There was a routine in place where he was still being monitored, where he still hadn’t been turned into a pelt covering. Yet he had strayed too far in his usual midnight bound, beyond his mother’s spells and calls for protection by the elements. As he found himself running down hill through the trees, he slowly changed to his human form. His naked, unarmed, human form. Before he could respond, he collapsed- as if bound to the earth. There was only one place that he was familiar with, that could revert his kind of magic or surpass the strength of his mother. The one land that had been waiting for his head for six years. The sunken kingdom of Green Grove. 

He woke to the murmurs of old men, the air smelled of burned spices, tobacco, and rotting wood. He found himself covered in black robes and chained to a small wooden chair. By the looks of his surrounding, and the attire of his captors- he was in the presence of novice woods wizards. They would have been no more than ninety years old, it would take them another century for them to gain the type of power his own mother had. However, where his mother could over power three of these, she was no match for the other one hundred and twenty seven woods wizards that places around the borders of this kingdom. Since the take over of the Kingdom, the word had passed through borders and made myth into market places and taverns from lands far and wide- The Sunken Kingdom was no longer protected by its geography. It was also protected by magic now.

His was unable to speak because of the spell that bound his mouth shut- by the law of this land any captive could speak out against their arrest, and by that same law all objection must be recorded. Yet conveniently no objection could be recorded if the captive could not speak.  
With a cloth bag covering his face and dragged in chain by three old men, far beyond his mother’s vision and being in what would appear to be his final death walk, it felt all too surreal for Danny. Even if he were to talk, what could he have said? Oh, my father, the man who led this realm into near bankruptcy has died and in his passing I was forced to turn into a wolf? Yes I know shape shifting is prohibited and marked as evil in the House of the Green Gods but it could have been worse? Even without out the wolf element, how was he supposed to explain why the most wanted person in this realm was found naked in the forrest.  
No, Daniel Desai embraced his forced silence and tried to enjoy this morbid walk, even memorising the chants of the wizards around him and attempting to enjoy the sharp sticks and stones that cut his feet.  
“Surely I was not expected to go through this” he thought to himself, as if passing the message on to his dead father. Yet deep in his mind, he felt a strange ease. For six years he was locked away in the dungeons of their kingdom, for a murder he couldn’t answer for. He may have been afforded various luxuries, and a mother who devotion and power could not be measured- but he did not feel he had served enough. He may have done the deed, but it was the two friends he valued most, Joanna and Lai-  
His throat went thick with anger. Had they not witnessed his deeds, she would not have had to change her name.  
Maybe being dragged through the woods by three mediocre wizards was what he deserved. His mother could ease once more, maybe slip into another century of perfecting her craft. 

Everything came to a halt, just when he had perfected the art of a semi sleep walk. It had seemed like these wizards never rested, for food or rest- for relieving themselves? he heard the wizards talk to a man. Or what sounded like a man.  
“We got ourselves a captive” one of them croaked  
“you always got yerselves a captive, but today the orders are to hold off the crims” Daniel heard the creaking of wood and the rattle of the chain. Three hundred woods wizards in sunken enchanted forests and even then they required a gate?  
“Aye, gate watcher, but this one is a bit urgent”  
“Yes gate watcher, observe how there is three of us”  
“Yes I can see there’s three crusty varieties of you here and dare I be so bold to ask how long you have left your area unguarded” the man said with irritation, hacking up a heavy cough.  
“What is the event that blocks us from submitting this fiend to the law”  
The sounds of a crowd reached across the barrier, loud enough for the wolf prince to hear. “Doesn’t the word ever reach you lot up at the border? Huh- the young king’s declaring his bride today”  
“He chose a bride?” one of the wizards asked. A spitting noise was heard  
“Aye yes, the dusky one- she won the campaign even though they say her sight be tainted by unearthly evil” the voice of the man came in closer, as if he were leaning “she was close to the little barbarian who chewed off the High Priestess’s throat”

Danny froze. He froze involuntarily, for in his mind he had bounded across that border, beyond the eyes of anyone who knew who we was. The penalty for trespassing was death, but today? The day his one friend would make amends between her people and this kingdom? The day of her wedding- he would be dragged into this place?  
“We will be quiet, just lead us around the back entrance” one of the wizards asked.  
“I would do that but it’s been blocked off, they aren’t taking any chances today”  
“But we need to get him in before out area gets any weaker”” they pleaded in unison “our duty is to protect the realm and we can’t have perverts lying around our border in bare flesh and with blood in his mouth”  
“That sounds like me on the Queen’s holiday”  
“We are begging you, please let us in, we feel his strength is greater than our own magic, it took us six spells to shut him tight”  
There was a choked up laughter coming from the gate watcher.  
“Aye aye alright, the crowd’s gone quiet anyway, so it may be a break- I’ll let you in quick”  
The sound of rattling coins and chains and creaking wood were all the more defining. The wizards dragged him along, quietly chanting. He heard gasps and sounds of confusion- apparently the young future queen was soon to speak and the queen mother was beyond irritated by the interruption. This was meant to be subtle. This was meant to be quiet. The dirt floor vibrated to the thud of nearing hooves, and this time he heard a more familiar voice.  
“Do you realise what you are doing” the man said in a harsh tone. It couldn’t be him.  
“Apologies our chief but this heathen managed to withstand several attempts of our binding spells before succumbing and we fear for the type of being he is we jus-“  
“Don’t give me that shit” Chief of House Masterson growled. Danny only prayed that the chief's daughter wasn’t here- “I swear upon the Green Gods you woodland types fail to do no-“ and the chief tugged the hood up, he saw him. Daniel Desai. Old man Masterson was certainly getting older and broader, as palace guard now, yet Daniel feared even more for who the young golden haired woman behind him was, peaking. She couldn’t have been J-  
“Joanna get back here!” her father hissed, clearly he was not expecting her either, as he watched Joanna run towards the platform. Her paled out face implanted in his mind, as if she saw the devil.

He dared not look to the panel, who stood upon it. It was his biggest regret, knowing that today, on her day of redemption, redemption for something he did- it would be ruined by him. The shrieks of the Queen Mother and the rise of purple smoke made it all the more worse once he recognised the deep chanting that filed the air, the first words he uttered as the binding spell was dropped “mother”. And there she was, his mother, the one high witch of this land- who clearly found weakness around the border. After a few quick words she disappeared into the smoke again, leaving him to drop the hood from his face. From a distance, he saw her. Newly named Lacey, from house Porters, standing on the platform on the day of her wedding declaration. He wanted to run up and say sorry. To go back in time to when he was bounding through the desert. Yet before her could utter the words “I’m sorry” he too was engulfed in plumes of heavy smoke.

Clearly he was back in town.


End file.
